Winter Garden Plan Seeks To Phase Out Billboards

WINTER GARDEN — Some of the city's billboards eventually would have to come down, but business owners would have an easier time getting permits for portable signs to advertise.

These are two of the proposals in the rough draft of the city's revised sign ordinance, which was presented to the City Commission last week.

The commission discussed minor changes to the ordinance, which is designed to make signs appealing.

''We're still tinkering with it,'' Commissioner Theo Graham said.

The ordinance would ban billboards in the city except along West Colonial Drive. An ordinance passed in 1987 had banned billboards everywhere in the city but had not been enforced.

West Colonial, also known as State Road 50, is a federal-aid primary highway. State law says companies forced to remove signs along these highways must be compensated for their losses by the local government that forced the signs to come down.

However, the national highway system is in the process of being reclassified, and West Colonial Drive might not stay part of the system. In that case, the billboards would eventually have to come down.

Other billboards in the city would have to come down in 10 years, according to the proposed ordinance. This 10-year amortization period would allow the signs to stay up long enough for the billboard companies to recoup their investments.

But officials at POA, a sign company with several billboards in Winter Garden, don't think they should have to take the signs down no matter how much time the city gives them.

''We just don't agree with amortization in any form,'' said Jay Trent, special projects manager for POA. ''Amortization is the taking of private property without just compensation.''

Graham said that so far he doesn't think Winter Garden is overrun with signs and that the billboards can be useful.

Commissioners debated whether the 10-year amortization period should start from the date of the new sign ordinance or the one enacted in 1987.

Starting it from the date of the newest ordinance might be safer for the city legally, City Attorney Kurt Ardaman told the commission.